Giro Rosa: Team Sunweb win opening team time trial

Van Dijk takes first maglia rosa as team bests Mitchelton-Scott by one second

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Team Sunweb

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Team Sunweb on the Giro Rosa podium after winning the opening team time trial

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Team Sunweb riders celebrate on the podium after stage 1 at Giro Rosa

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Mitchelton-Scott on the podium after stage 1 at Giro Rosa

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Boels Dolmans finished third in the opening stage of the Giro Rosa

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Mitchelton-Scott en route to second in the opening stage of the Giro Rosa

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Mitchelton-Scott finished second in the opening stage of the Giro Rosa

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Team Sunweb ride to victory in the opening Giro Rosa time trial

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Team Sunweb ride to victory in the opening Giro Rosa time trial

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Micthelton-Scott, Team Sunweb and Boels Dolmans on the Giro Rosa podium after the opening team time trial

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Ellen van Dijk in pink after the opening team time trial at the Giro Rosa

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Ellen van Dijk celebrates on the podium after the opening team time trial at the Giro Rosa

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Elena Cecchini on the Giro Rosa podium as best Italian rider

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Ellen van Dijk celebrates on the podium after the opening team time trial at the Giro Rosa

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Sara Penton leads Team Virtu Cycling

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Malgorzta Jasinska leads Movistar

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Mitchelton-Scott's Sarah Roy in the points jersey after stage 1 at the Giro Rosa

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Rasa Leleivyte leads Team Aromitalia Vaiano

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Silvia Persico leads Valcar-PBM

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Team Sunweb

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FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope

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Mitchelton-Scott

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Team Sunweb

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Boels Dolmans

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The TTT podium topped by Team Sunweb

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The Mitchelton-Scott riders plot tactics before the start of the team time trial

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Team Top Girls Fassa Bortolo

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Team Eurotarget-Bianchi-Vitasana

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Team Bizkaia Durango - Euskadi Murias

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Team SC Michela Fanini

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Servetto - Stradalli Cycle - Alure Cycling Team

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Team Aromitalia Vaiano

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Trek-Drops team

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Annemiek van Vleuten's time trial bike ready and waiting

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Preparing the numbers

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Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton-Scott)

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Jolien D'hoore has a bit of fun before the time trial

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Team Conceria Zabri-Fanini

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Team Sunweb won the opening team time trial to start off the Giro Rosa, putting Ellen van Dijk into the pink jersey of the overall leader. The Dutch team kept all riders together and finished in 18:24, beating Mitchelton-Scott by one second. Boels Dolmans finished third, 12 seconds slower.

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The 2018 Giro Rosa rolled out Friday afternoon with a 15.5-kilometre team time trial in Verbania on the shores of Lago Maggiore. As much of the course was along the lake, the profile of the stage was flat. Instead, the challenge was to coordinate the effort of all riders in the team to produce a good result together.

Albanian-registered Conceria Zabri-Fanini were first off the start ramp and covered the course in 20:31, a time that was beaten by Servetto-Stradalli Cycle-Alurecycling who finished in 20:24.

Trek-Drops put down the first serious benchmark with 19:42, a time that Team Movistar beat by seven seconds. WaowDeals made a serious improvement on that by finishing in 18:59 - the first team to break the 19-minute mark.

Wiggle High5 fell short of the new best time by four seconds, but Canyon-SRAM cut another eight seconds off the best time and took the lead. They were beaten by Cervélo-Bigla, who showed a very good performance to finish in 18:46.

Team Sunweb were next on the course, and the Dutch team showed why they are TTT world champions. Racing as a unit and finishing with all seven riders, they stopped the clock after 18:24. There were only two teams left, Australian Mitchelton-Scott and Dutch Boels Dolmans. Although they came close, Mitchelton-Scott fell short of Team Sunweb's time by one second, and when Boels Dolmans finished in 18:36, van Dijk and her teammates could celebrate their victory.

"I am super happy to have won, but it feels a little weird to get the jersey alone when it is a team effort," van Dijk said after the finish. "It is a great feeling to have won this with the team. We had a good preparation and reconnoitred the course a couple of times. We had a good meeting before the race and a very good plan. I think almost everything went according to the plan, and that is what you need here to win this race. You were not allowed to make any mistakes on this fast, demanding course."